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Time Or Dimensional Slips

I know that Berry Pomeroy castle has figured in several ghost-related threads here over the years, but I couldn't find any reference to this classic time-slip account that was reported to have occurred in its vicinity, as related by a Miss E Beveridge.
The month of the experience is quoted as May, but I could not find any reference to year, which clearly diminishes the validity of the account. Still, I found it an interesting enough tale and thought it was worth adding to this thread. The South Devon website it was posted on was last edited in May 2019.

"A South African friend was staying with me, and going out late one afternoon we turned down a lane… leading to the Castle Mill of which I knew nothing. Half a mile or so along this lane my friend’s easy flow of chatter died away and an uncomfortable silence ensued which I found impossible to break.
We had both simultaneously become aware of something strange and oddly disquieting in the atmosphere; then I was struck by something unusual in our immediate surroundings which I could not at first identify. I puzzled over it for a moment before I realised that the fowls scratching in a sloping field beside the track were of a breed I had never before encountered, scraggy, long-necked creatures, and in lieu of ordinary chicken houses were rough shelters of turves and branches, while certain domes of plaited straw like old fashioned bee-skeps apparently housed a few broody hens sitting on their eggs.
It was perfect afternoon in May, no breath of air stirred, sunlight lay warm and golden (but) there was something very eerie in the atmosphere. The silence was profound, uncannily so, for the environs of a mill even so remote and small as this.
Suddenly we rounded a corner and found ourselves in a tiny farmyard, the house to one side, some ramshackle sheds on the other side and before us a swiftly flowing stream.
The house was small, low and incredibly shabby, with small, deep set windows overhanging with ragged thatch. The only living creature… was a little girl of eleven or twelve who was sitting on the low wall which partly enclosed the yard next to the pool or stream. I never saw such a little savage – dirty and unkempt, with swarthy skin and coarse black hair which looked as if it had never known a brush or comb, and smouldering black eyes which were fixed on us in an unwinking stare of such intense malignity that we felt ourselves more than ever intruders where we had no right to be. Her dress looked like nothing on earth but a filthy sack with holes but in it for head and arms, and a piece of rope loosely tied about her waist. She was sitting hunched with chin on hands and elbows on knees, bare legs drawn up so that the soles of her feet were pressed vertically against the wall. Without moving a muscle she crouched there, glaring at us in a deadly silence that could be felt.
Feeling uneasy, the ladies reversed their car and fled. A fortnight later Miss Beveridge visited the Mill again, “The strange fowls and the rude shelter had vanished, and in their place were wooden henhouses of the usual type.
When the mill house came in sight, I noticed at once that it had been completely rethatched. The roof appeared much higher too, to provide a second story… the windows seemed larger, the leaded panes winking in the evening light where before had been dark gaping holes… innocent of glass. A new wing had been added… there was no dark, malevolent little damsel crouching on the wall and the atmosphere was perfectly normal and serene…”

https://wearesouthdevon.com/berry-pomeroy-timeslip-ghost/
Great find. From the style I would guess early 20th C. Odd that many of the cases from those days emphasize "uncanny feelings," which aren't reported very often with more recent time slips.
 
Interesting.

One of my first ever posts on this forum, was about a time slip that Mrs DT & I experienced in the spring of 2005. This also happened in south Devon.
 
Great. I think that it's a lot more difficult to write-off a large group of people seeing something unusual as some kind of group hallucination. Everybody's brain chemistry is different, and if some unseen substance were causing a group to hallucinate the likelihood of everybody seeing the same thing is not high. And while you cannot 100% rule out one person saying 'look over there! I'm seeing <X, Y or Z>' and others backing them up purely because they are caught up in the moment, I would be reluctant to jump directly to such a conclusion.

I find it interesting that you mention this being a story that you had heard relayed a number of times. I think most of us have some kind of story from their past which our Parents repeat over the years. But that the details didn't change (claims inflating, or points exaggerated for the effect of telling a well-honed story) is promising.

We've spoken before in this thread of familiar traits of a timeslip experience. More commonly people talk of walking into a timeslip and noticing the conditions around them change as they do. This doesn't appear to be the case with your example above. In fact arguably the experience ended hen the Dutch gentleman tried to walk out towards it. I think this has more in common with the Norfolk based story of the Furious Coachman in which those who experienced the event found that rather than walking into a timeslip, it passed over them.

Can you recall your parents ever having mentioned any other sensations leading up to or during the experience? Feelings? Sounds? Smells?
I had the same feeling as the people who saw the Furious Coachman but along with the silence, different atmosphere ( mine was depressed) and no people, cars, birds sounds around but me and my friend never witnessed a Time Slip sadly but instead saw a Orange Ball in the sky which after 10 seconds to a minute just shot off upwards and disappeared ?
 
I know that Berry Pomeroy castle has figured in several ghost-related threads here over the years, but I couldn't find any reference to this classic time-slip account that was reported to have occurred in its vicinity, as related by a Miss E Beveridge.
The month of the experience is quoted as May, but I could not find any reference to year, which clearly diminishes the validity of the account. Still, I found it an interesting enough tale and thought it was worth adding to this thread. The South Devon website it was posted on was last edited in May 2019.

"A South African friend was staying with me, and going out late one afternoon we turned down a lane… leading to the Castle Mill of which I knew nothing. Half a mile or so along this lane my friend’s easy flow of chatter died away and an uncomfortable silence ensued which I found impossible to break.
We had both simultaneously become aware of something strange and oddly disquieting in the atmosphere; then I was struck by something unusual in our immediate surroundings which I could not at first identify. I puzzled over it for a moment before I realised that the fowls scratching in a sloping field beside the track were of a breed I had never before encountered, scraggy, long-necked creatures, and in lieu of ordinary chicken houses were rough shelters of turves and branches, while certain domes of plaited straw like old fashioned bee-skeps apparently housed a few broody hens sitting on their eggs.
It was perfect afternoon in May, no breath of air stirred, sunlight lay warm and golden (but) there was something very eerie in the atmosphere. The silence was profound, uncannily so, for the environs of a mill even so remote and small as this.
Suddenly we rounded a corner and found ourselves in a tiny farmyard, the house to one side, some ramshackle sheds on the other side and before us a swiftly flowing stream.
The house was small, low and incredibly shabby, with small, deep set windows overhanging with ragged thatch. The only living creature… was a little girl of eleven or twelve who was sitting on the low wall which partly enclosed the yard next to the pool or stream. I never saw such a little savage – dirty and unkempt, with swarthy skin and coarse black hair which looked as if it had never known a brush or comb, and smouldering black eyes which were fixed on us in an unwinking stare of such intense malignity that we felt ourselves more than ever intruders where we had no right to be. Her dress looked like nothing on earth but a filthy sack with holes but in it for head and arms, and a piece of rope loosely tied about her waist. She was sitting hunched with chin on hands and elbows on knees, bare legs drawn up so that the soles of her feet were pressed vertically against the wall. Without moving a muscle she crouched there, glaring at us in a deadly silence that could be felt.
Feeling uneasy, the ladies reversed their car and fled. A fortnight later Miss Beveridge visited the Mill again, “The strange fowls and the rude shelter had vanished, and in their place were wooden henhouses of the usual type.
When the mill house came in sight, I noticed at once that it had been completely rethatched. The roof appeared much higher too, to provide a second story… the windows seemed larger, the leaded panes winking in the evening light where before had been dark gaping holes… innocent of glass. A new wing had been added… there was no dark, malevolent little damsel crouching on the wall and the atmosphere was perfectly normal and serene…”

https://wearesouthdevon.com/berry-pomeroy-timeslip-ghost/

Location

Statutory Address:CASTLE MILL AND ADJOINING MILLER'S HOUSE
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County Devon

District: South Hams (District Authority) Parish: Berry Pomeroy
National Grid Reference: SX 83698 62317

Details

SX 86 SW BERRY POMEROY

5/2 Castle Mill and adjoining Miller's House -

- II

Disused water mill and adjoining miller's house. The mill is circa C18 or earlier. Stone rubble, partly rendered. Corrugated asbestos sheet roof with gabled ends. Situated on sloping ground, two and three storeys. Some hollow- chamfered stone windows with hoodmoulds probably reused from Berry Pomeroy Castle q.v. On the north side a three-light hollow-chamfered window with hoodmould with fleuron stops. At the lower end of the mill a wide segmental arched doorway. Lower two-storey wing at right angles to south-west, is a three-window range with slate roof. C18 fixed-light windows with glazing bars and wooden lintels. Truncated projecting chimney stack at rear (north) of this wing. Interior: at the higher end of the old north range a chamfered ceiling beam and chamfered joists. C19 house adjoining north may incorporate some earlier material. None of the machinery survives.

Reference: NMR photograph taken c.1865, reference No BB82/12121.

Listing NGR: SX8369862317

Castle-Mill-Farm-Berry-Pomeroy-Fortean.jpg


(Ignore arrow in upper left).

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1108573

maximus otter
 
Last edited:
I know that Berry Pomeroy castle has figured in several ghost-related threads here over the years, but I couldn't find any reference to this classic time-slip account that was reported to have occurred in its vicinity, as related by a Miss E Beveridge.
The month of the experience is quoted as May, but I could not find any reference to year, which clearly diminishes the validity of the account. Still, I found it an interesting enough tale and thought it was worth adding to this thread. The South Devon website it was posted on was last edited in May 2019.

"A South African friend was staying with me, and going out late one afternoon we turned down a lane… leading to the Castle Mill of which I knew nothing. Half a mile or so along this lane my friend’s easy flow of chatter died away and an uncomfortable silence ensued which I found impossible to break.
We had both simultaneously become aware of something strange and oddly disquieting in the atmosphere; then I was struck by something unusual in our immediate surroundings which I could not at first identify. I puzzled over it for a moment before I realised that the fowls scratching in a sloping field beside the track were of a breed I had never before encountered, scraggy, long-necked creatures, and in lieu of ordinary chicken houses were rough shelters of turves and branches, while certain domes of plaited straw like old fashioned bee-skeps apparently housed a few broody hens sitting on their eggs.
It was perfect afternoon in May, no breath of air stirred, sunlight lay warm and golden (but) there was something very eerie in the atmosphere. The silence was profound, uncannily so, for the environs of a mill even so remote and small as this.
Suddenly we rounded a corner and found ourselves in a tiny farmyard, the house to one side, some ramshackle sheds on the other side and before us a swiftly flowing stream.
The house was small, low and incredibly shabby, with small, deep set windows overhanging with ragged thatch. The only living creature… was a little girl of eleven or twelve who was sitting on the low wall which partly enclosed the yard next to the pool or stream. I never saw such a little savage – dirty and unkempt, with swarthy skin and coarse black hair which looked as if it had never known a brush or comb, and smouldering black eyes which were fixed on us in an unwinking stare of such intense malignity that we felt ourselves more than ever intruders where we had no right to be. Her dress looked like nothing on earth but a filthy sack with holes but in it for head and arms, and a piece of rope loosely tied about her waist. She was sitting hunched with chin on hands and elbows on knees, bare legs drawn up so that the soles of her feet were pressed vertically against the wall. Without moving a muscle she crouched there, glaring at us in a deadly silence that could be felt.
Feeling uneasy, the ladies reversed their car and fled. A fortnight later Miss Beveridge visited the Mill again, “The strange fowls and the rude shelter had vanished, and in their place were wooden henhouses of the usual type.
When the mill house came in sight, I noticed at once that it had been completely rethatched. The roof appeared much higher too, to provide a second story… the windows seemed larger, the leaded panes winking in the evening light where before had been dark gaping holes… innocent of glass. A new wing had been added… there was no dark, malevolent little damsel crouching on the wall and the atmosphere was perfectly normal and serene…”

https://wearesouthdevon.com/berry-pomeroy-timeslip-ghost/

I've done a wee bit of research, and it seems that the observer and her pal turned off the road from Afton Bridge onto a minor road that comes to a dead-end at Castle Mill Farm:

Berry-Pomeroy-castle-farm-Fortean-route-added.jpg


Possible route in red. I have checked this on Google Earth, and it seems to be about 850 yards long. This accords nicely with her estimate of "half a mile".

The farm and setting today:

Castle-Mill-Farm-Berry-Pomeroy-Fortean.jpg


There is a small stream running roughly parallel to the lane, about halfway up this view. Ignore the "pointy finger" icon.


maximus otter
 
I've done a wee bit of research, and it seems that the observer and her pal turned off the road from Afton Bridge onto a minor road that comes to a dead-end at Castle Mill Farm:

Berry-Pomeroy-castle-farm-Fortean-route-added.jpg


Possible route in red. I have checked this on Google Earth, and it seems to be about 850 yards long. This accords nicely with her estimate of "half a mile".

The farm and setting today:

Castle-Mill-Farm-Berry-Pomeroy-Fortean.jpg


There is a small stream running roughly parallel to the lane, about halfway up this view. Ignore the "pointy finger" icon.


maximus otter

Excellent research Max!
 
Great find. From the style I would guess early 20th C. Odd that many of the cases from those days emphasize "uncanny feelings," which aren't reported very often with more recent time slips.
My own pathetic possible time slip (see through cat on B1222) husband and I both saw it and I will have posted it here - zero sense of foreboding despite it being late and heavy fog.

In fact, I think we were laughing and joking and being idiots as it happened just fell silent, in disbelief. No feeling of impending doom and of course we are used to the fogs etc at these low altitudes as I grew up near here, it’s the most familiar thing to me plus I’ve driven and been driven on this stretch of road my entire life. Not a place we feel doomladen.
 
My own pathetic possible time slip (see through cat on B1222) husband and I both saw it and I will have posted it here - zero sense of foreboding despite it being late and heavy fog.

In fact, I think we were laughing and joking and being idiots as it happened just fell silent, in disbelief. No feeling of impending doom and of course we are used to the fogs etc at these low altitudes as I grew up near here, it’s the most familiar thing to me plus I’ve driven and been driven on this stretch of road my entire life. Not a place we feel doomladen.
What happened ?
 
It is a fascinating topic this, the theory I can believe is that occasionally we interact with other dimensions perhaps many times without even realising it, many ghosts seem to be just going about their business.

I guess the acid test for the time travel or loop theory is to find an account from someone from the past who saw someone from the the future strange modern clothes that sort of thing. I have read (I forget where) of people who seem to slip into the future levitating trains and people looking out the window aghast
 
It is a fascinating topic this, the theory I can believe is that occasionally we interact with other dimensions perhaps many times without even realising it, many ghosts seem to be just going about their business.

I guess the acid test for the time travel or loop theory is to find an account from someone from the past who saw someone from the the future strange modern clothes that sort of thing. I have read (I forget where) of people who seem to slip into the future levitating trains and people looking out the window aghast
There are a few cases that pass this test, I recall one of Jenny Randles' where a young girl in around 1920 saw a group of people wearing weird clothing, and then decades later realised that they had been in the fashion of the 1960s.
 
This is interesting and has mention of train seen by monks hundreds of years ago.

Kind of lost me with the Zaneti train story, obviously a fake story for many different reasons, so could not continue
 
I wonder if the power of prayer would give us a Time Slip as I love to experienced one but as Robbrent mentioned we might have had one but not realised.
 
Kind of lost me with the Zaneti train story, obviously a fake story for many different reasons, so could not continue

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any credible citations for the train story and the Pan Am Flight 914 account is taken from a short work of fiction published in the (now defunct) Weekly World News tabloid in 1985.
 
My partner had an almost time slip moment when he was in Germany once with a friend. The friend was sleeping off the excesses from the night before, so he went for a walk around the city. (It might have been Hamburg but really can't remember for sure). It was early morning, and he was a little bleary and didn't pay much attention to where he was going. Suddenly he found himself on a street covered in long red waving banners all sporting a swastika. People were walking around in 1940s gear. He said he had to do a double take, but sadly quickly discovered it was a film set, and not a slip back into time.
 
What happened ?
I'll have posted it probably more than once. But to save me searching - just quickly. Driving back late at night, south of York, in the countryside. Road I've known all my life as have generations of my mother's family. Foggy night but nothing unusual about that here. We were probably in no rush to get home as we were having a laugh and driving incredibly slowly. Fog lights working and we could see a few metres ahead of us.

This shadow, the size of a small animal, appeared in the middle of the road. It moved - not too fast not too slow to the verge. Where it materialised as a cat. But see-through. You could see it was a cat, not just a blob, or any old animal - but it was sort of transparent. It walked into the woods.

Thing is, it caught my attention on the road because it's not a usual thing to see a shadow at night and esp if it's a shadow not attached to anything.

When we passed it - and as I say we were driving incredibly slowly (approaching a blind bend, boy racer road particularly on that bend) - I asked husband, if he'd just seen what I'd just seen. He described seeing a shadow that moved to the verge then materialised as a cat. That was see through. I remember saying it wasn't a real cat because apart from the fact they don't tend to be transparent, it's eyes would have lit up when the headlights hit it. Nothing. I was careful to feed him no facts and I assumed, as I was seeing it, it was very late at night, and I was very tired and I'd probably imagined it. But then he shattered that illusion by describing precisely what I'd seen.

Also I recall looking up into the trees above to see if there was a carrier bag or something, casting the shadow. There wasn't.

The only difference in his account was, that he saw some vegetation on the verge that he didn't think was really there. He drove past on his way to work the next day, and sure enough, it wasn't. I had no conscious impression of the backdrop being altered - just the cat. Also in daylight we realised there is a metal fence there, at the point where it disappeared from our sight into the woods - am not even sure a cat could get through it or it would have to jump or something. This just walked in.
 
Forgot to say but... my kids believe all our old ghost stories but they laugh themselves stupid at this one.

Also I tried to research afterwards to see if anyone else had ever reported seeing anything on this stretch of road. Nothing.
 
Forgot to say but... my kids believe all our old ghost stories but they laugh themselves stupid at this one.

Also I tried to research afterwards to see if anyone else had ever reported seeing anything on this stretch of road. Nothing.
It's certainly creepy!!
 
I'll have posted it probably more than once. But to save me searching - just quickly. Driving back late at night, south of York, in the countryside. Road I've known all my life as have generations of my mother's family. Foggy night but nothing unusual about that here. We were probably in no rush to get home as we were having a laugh and driving incredibly slowly. Fog lights working and we could see a few metres ahead of us.

This shadow, the size of a small animal, appeared in the middle of the road. It moved - not too fast not too slow to the verge. Where it materialised as a cat. But see-through. You could see it was a cat, not just a blob, or any old animal - but it was sort of transparent. It walked into the woods.

Thing is, it caught my attention on the road because it's not a usual thing to see a shadow at night and esp if it's a shadow not attached to anything.

When we passed it - and as I say we were driving incredibly slowly (approaching a blind bend, boy racer road particularly on that bend) - I asked husband, if he'd just seen what I'd just seen. He described seeing a shadow that moved to the verge then materialised as a cat. That was see through. I remember saying it wasn't a real cat because apart from the fact they don't tend to be transparent, it's eyes would have lit up when the headlights hit it. Nothing. I was careful to feed him no facts and I assumed, as I was seeing it, it was very late at night, and I was very tired and I'd probably imagined it. But then he shattered that illusion by describing precisely what I'd seen.

Also I recall looking up into the trees above to see if there was a carrier bag or something, casting the shadow. There wasn't.

The only difference in his account was, that he saw some vegetation on the verge that he didn't think was really there. He drove past on his way to work the next day, and sure enough, it wasn't. I had no conscious impression of the backdrop being altered - just the cat. Also in daylight we realised there is a metal fence there, at the point where it disappeared from our sight into the woods - am not even sure a cat could get through it or it would have to jump or something. This just walked in.
Starting to think the Paranormal is the normal like Aliens, Afterlife, Time Slips etc and we are not the normal ones but somehow we can't access it all like getting another ale from the fridge which I can do all the time.
 
Starting to think the Paranormal is the normal like Aliens, Afterlife, Time Slips etc and we are not the normal ones but somehow we can't access it all like getting another ale from the fridge which I can do all the time.
I think that's a good explanation.

I reckon we also just don't have the technology at the moment either to access it all.
 
I think that's a good explanation.

I reckon we also just don't have the technology at the moment either to access it all.
Thank you for that but not only technology but also the spiritual awareness apart from DMT and other stuff but that is a Paranormal thing or something in our heads.
Heads up but sorry for straying from the thread.
 
Thank you for that but not only technology but also the spiritual awareness apart from DMT and other stuff but that is a Paranormal thing or something in our heads.
Heads up but sorry for straying from the thread.
Oh I fully agree and especially about the DMT as one "gateway"
 
Starting to think the Paranormal is the normal like Aliens, Afterlife, Time Slips etc and we are not the normal ones but somehow we can't access it all like getting another ale from the fridge which I can do all the time.
I think at the time it was happening, husband was thinking "time slip" immediately because he was aware he wasn't just seeing the cat but stuff in the background he knew not to be there normally... Whereas I was just so focused on the cat, didn't notice anything else - and in my head it was "GHOOOOOST!" His perception, for a few seconds, of where we were slightly shifted. Experiencing precisely the same phenomenon - mine didn't. So maybe the underlying personality of the witnesses plays a part, too? Not so many phenomena that have ore than one witness, of course - but this would be fascinating to look into.

But yes, time slip seems feasible to me - or rather, that's what most "ghosts" are. I don't think they are sentient or can react except in rare cases - but these "slices of time" somehow jumbled into the wrong order, are more likely.

I'm always aware when telling this, that the fact it was a very foggy night sort of makes my story less credible. But what can I say? It was a foggy night. And you can "see" things perfectly well that are within your fog lights and in the centre of the road ahead, very close to you. All I can say it mitigation of the fog is - I grew up round here on the Vale of York where fog in three seasons of the year, is default setting, at night. So I don't find it spooky or weird - it's just there.
 
I think at the time it was happening, husband was thinking "time slip" immediately because he was aware he wasn't just seeing the cat but stuff in the background he knew not to be there normally... Whereas I was just so focused on the cat, didn't notice anything else - and in my head it was "GHOOOOOST!" His perception, for a few seconds, of where we were slightly shifted. Experiencing precisely the same phenomenon - mine didn't. So maybe the underlying personality of the witnesses plays a part, too? Not so many phenomena that have ore than one witness, of course - but this would be fascinating to look into.

But yes, time slip seems feasible to me - or rather, that's what most "ghosts" are. I don't think they are sentient or can react except in rare cases - but these "slices of time" somehow jumbled into the wrong order, are more likely.

I'm always aware when telling this, that the fact it was a very foggy night sort of makes my story less credible. But what can I say? It was a foggy night. And you can "see" things perfectly well that are within your fog lights and in the centre of the road ahead, very close to you. All I can say it mitigation of the fog is - I grew up round here on the Vale of York where fog in three seasons of the year, is default setting, at night. So I don't find it spooky or weird - it's just there.
I posted before but me and my friend noticed a orange ball in the sky that stayed in the same position for around 10 seconds or more before shooting up in the sky and disappearing within a few seconds back in the summer of 1988 but the strange thing was before we saw it I believe what I experienced was what Jenny Randles describes as 'The Oz Factor' as I felt the surroundings went all eerie with the clouds being deep grey and the atmosphere being very heavy and depressed and it was early mid evening so the street we were on there seemed no sign of life with cars, people, birds ?
The strange thing as the UFO disappeared we just looked at each other and went WOW and then my bus turned up but the next day we never said anything about and i often wonder if he had experienced the so called Oz Factor.

Pretty in sure the next I saw a headline in The Star paper my mams ex was reading at breakfast that orange balls had been seen around the country ( England) was that another time ?
 
I posted before but me and my friend noticed a orange ball in the sky that stayed in the same position for around 10 seconds or more before shooting up in the sky and disappearing within a few seconds back in the summer of 1988 but the strange thing was before we saw it I believe what I experienced was what Jenny Randles describes as 'The Oz Factor' as I felt the surroundings went all eerie with the clouds being deep grey and the atmosphere being very heavy and depressed and it was early mid evening so the street we were on there seemed no sign of life with cars, people, birds ?
The strange thing as the UFO disappeared we just looked at each other and went WOW and then my bus turned up but the next day we never said anything about and i often wonder if he had experienced the so called Oz Factor.

Pretty in sure the next I saw a headline in The Star paper my mams ex was reading at breakfast that orange balls had been seen around the country ( England) was that another time ?

I think I have experienced that eeriness, other times, so know exactly what you mean. But this particular incident - we were both laughing and joking and chatting, no sense of doom or slight shift in gear in our perceptions of our surroundings (so far as you can perceive surroundings in a car with the windows up, and at night in the fog...)

Last week, I was at an open access English Heritage site at dusk (Byland Abbey). We go there a lot and often fairly late so we get the site to ourselves.

We had walked round and were just sat on a bench, enjoying the evening, getting a few atmospheric shots of the lowering clouds over the ruined abbey kinda thing. Then... This really creepy, weird utter silence descended, suddenly. This really odd, watchfulness - you could feel it. Like a sudden drop in atmospheric pressure or summat. We were looking at the sky anyway. And I realised there was this drop dead massive bird of prey, wheeling towards us. All the other birds must have clocked it and fallen silent. When it passed over and a few fields away - they all started up again. If I hadn't been looking at the sky, am not sure I would have realised why the sudden uncanny silence. But something in their nature, told all these birds to STFU. It was really cool to experience.
 
I think I have experienced that eeriness, other times, so know exactly what you mean. But this particular incident - we were both laughing and joking and chatting, no sense of doom or slight shift in gear in our perceptions of our surroundings (so far as you can perceive surroundings in a car with the windows up, and at night in the fog...)

Last week, I was at an open access English Heritage site at dusk (Byland Abbey). We go there a lot and often fairly late so we get the site to ourselves.

We had walked round and were just sat on a bench, enjoying the evening, getting a few atmospheric shots of the lowering clouds over the ruined abbey kinda thing. Then... This really creepy, weird utter silence descended, suddenly. This really odd, watchfulness - you could feel it. Like a sudden drop in atmospheric pressure or summat. We were looking at the sky anyway. And I realised there was this drop dead massive bird of prey, wheeling towards us. All the other birds must have clocked it and fallen silent. When it passed over and a few fields away - they all started up again. If I hadn't been looking at the sky, am not sure I would have realised why the sudden uncanny silence. But something in their nature, told all these birds to STFU. It was really cool to experience.
Sounds amazingly cool experience!! I'm jealous!
 
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